NEWS RELEASE
SIMCOE COUNTY DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
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Student achievement and well-being has long been a priority for the Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB). In May 2017 that commitment was renewed when the Board of Trustees approved four strategic priorities to guide the SCDSB from 2017-2022.
One of those priorities is ‘excellence in teaching and learning’, which has four main pillars:
- high standards of achievement for all students
- innovative and engaging teaching practices and learning environments
- literacy and numeracy competencies embedded in all curriculum areas
- skills needed to thrive in a technologically-driven global society
“Ensuring that each one of our students is positioned to succeed, and providing staff and students the resources to make this possible, is critical to achieving our mission,” says SCDSB Director of Education Steve Blake.
In September 2017, the SCDSB will consolidate the Program, Special Education and Student Success departments in a model that will maximize student achievement and well-being through sharing resources, skills and expertise more effectively.
Under this model, the SCDSB will work to screen students early so that they can be supported with strategies and resources that meet their learning needs.
For the 2017-18 school year, the SCDSB will ‘deepen our focus on the core’. We will continue to focus on evidence-based instructional practice, specifically:
- early literacy (K – Grade 3)
- junior numeracy (Grades 4 - 6)
- cross-panel instruction (Grades 7 – 10)
Schools throughout the SCDSB will have instructional facilitators and math leads to help students gain the math knowledge and skills they need to be successful.
“Our students are growing up in a world that requires a wide range of skills and knowledge to be successful, and success in the areas of mathematics and literacy is critical to that success,” states Chris Samis, SCDSB Superintendent of Program / Special Education. “Through classroom-embedded professional learning, all of our schools will be better able create classrooms that include problem solving, direct instruction, investigation and differentiation in order to ensure students’ success in all areas, especially literacy and numeracy.”
The SCDSB continues to be a leader in the area of embedding technology in classrooms to enhance learning. We will continue to maximize the use of technology as a teaching and learning tool in all classrooms to create innovative learning environments that are equitable, inclusive and engage students as they grow, learn and succeed.
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